


don't let me be misunderstood

by orphan_account



Series: Kill Bill AU [1]
Category: Game Grumps, Kill Bill (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, Angst, Assassins & Hitmen, Blood, Death, Kill Bill AU, M/M, Ninja Ship Party, Revenge, yup there's a major character death in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-13
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-18 08:32:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10613151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: “Take off the mask,” Dan says, voice hard, gaze full of fire. “Just take it off. You owe me that much.”A Kill Bill AU.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I recently rewatched Kill Bill, so here is the Kill Bill AU that no one asked for lol. I just couldn't get the idea of Dan as the Bride out of my head. I mean, he's tall and pretty like Uma Thurman and he looks badass without even trying and he's in a band about ninjas...it fit the western v. eastern thing goin on in the movie really nicely to me, haha. Anyways, this was really fun to write, and it should make sense even if you haven't seen the films. (If you haven't seen them, I highly recommend you check them out because they're great fun and they're beautifully made!)

“Take off the mask,” Dan says, voice hard, gaze full of fire. “Just take it off. You owe me that much.”

Dan has tracked down and cut his way through every member of his former organization, the assassins of the Graceland Revolutionary Marksman Point Squad (hereafter known as the GRuMPS). With each bloody death, the old raw, aching wound in his spirit closes little by little.

Now, it’s the final showdown. It’s high noon, and Dan stands, dressed in leather, on the terrace of a villa in Guadalajara, before the man who started it all. Dan’s body’s set in ready stance, his Hanson-crafted sword held with the hilt next to his face and the point trained on his adversary.

His adversary, who is a few yards away from him, is set in a similar stance, clothed in full ninja garb with only his eyes visible. His own Hanson sword is pointed straight at Dan, and he’s not breathing a word.

“Take off the mask,” Dan repeats. “You know you owe me, Brian.”

For several moments, they are both frozen.

And then, Brian speaks, and it’s the first words he’s said to Dan in over four years. “You’re right, Danny. I guess I do owe it to you.” And he slowly takes one hand off his sword, brings it up to the hem of his mask, pulls it off in one fluid motion and tosses it aside.

There he is.

Same strong jaw. Same salt and pepper hair. Same piercing blue eyes and smirking mouth.

Old master, old handler. Plucked a raggedy twenty-something Dan from the streets so many years ago, turned him into a sleek, cold-blooded killer. He and Brian’s GRuMPS traveled the globe, contract-killing in the shadows and living the high life. Dan was at the top of the game. Deadliest man in the world, and comfortably numb.

Until something shifted. And he _felt_. And he _felt_ for Brian.

Dan knew he had to get away.

If he could _feel_ , and _love_ , then he could exist in normalcy. He could make something of himself. He was no longer a street rat.

He took the first out he saw, found a pretty young civilian man, and tried to start over. Built up a new existence with a new name. It wasn’t his ideal, but it was something. An escape to a place where he could feel, because to feel in the world of assassins was to write your own death sentence.

It was only a few months later that Dan discovered he hadn’t quite pulled off his escape act.

Brian and the GRuMPS found him.

Wiped out his entire family, old and new.

Brian tried to get Dan, too, with a nice fat bullet in the brain.

He didn’t succeed – Dan had fallen into a coma – but the damage was still done.

Dan woke up four years later with his new life and new dreams still shattered, and a deep thirst for revenge.

Fast forward back to the now. The other GRuMPS are dead as dust, as they well deserve. It’s the climax of the whole bloody affair, and Dan is staring at the bare face of his worst enemy, the man he loves.

“Now you see me,” Brian says with a wry grin. There’s no humor in his eyes. There’s the old coldness and ferocity. And…a bit of fondness. And sadness.

Looking at him makes Dan want to tear his heart out.

The wound in his spirit aches, desperate for that final relief.

 _It’s coming,_ Dan thinks. _It’s coming._

“Just like it should be,” Dan replies. “You and I have unfinished business, and you’re gonna face me. You’re not gonna hide behind anything.” _Face up to your actions. No more snake shit._

Brian nods solemnly.

“For the record,” Brian says, “I wasn’t hiding before. I loved you. I still love you. I thought my actions at the time made it clear. You know you didn’t belong with that city _tool_.” He spits the words out bitterly. “He didn’t know you. Not like I did.”

“In case my actions as of late haven’t made it clear, that was a fucked-up way of showing it.” Dan’s fingers flex on the handle of his sword. “Maybe he wasn’t for me. But someone _is_. And that someone isn’t you.” The words are like a double-edged sword themselves. They visibly cut at Brian, to Dan’s immense satisfaction – but they also cut back at Dan. But they must be said.

“I love you,” Dan says, “but you don’t know me. Not anymore.”

In a blink, they’ve closed the distance and are clashing swords, swiftly weaving around one another. Their grunts and yells and the clang of steel against steel ring out in the air. Dan runs on pure adrenaline and instinct. He sees things as if he’s in a film, or behind a lens. Watches himself swing and block, swing and block, thrust, parry, cheers himself on in his headspace – _do it, do, it, do it, end him_ –

Dan ducks a swing, whirls wildly with his sword around back of Brian and SCHICK –

A spray of blood, a wet smack on the terrace –

Brian’s been scalped.

Brian’s sword slips from his hands and clangs on the ground. He falls to his knees, blood oozing down from his open skull cavity.

“Now you see me,” he murmurs, “now you don’t.”

And he falls over, dead.

Dan watches, chest heaving with his breaths, arms outstretched, sword glistening red.

He flicks his sword to remove the excess blood, then carefully slides it back into its sheath at his hip.

He looks at the blood spatter on the ground.

He looks at the detached chunk of scalp and skull.

He looks at Brian’s Hanson sword.

He looks at Brian’s body.

For one bright moment, he is comfortably numb yet again.

Then the floodgates open, and Dan falls to his knees, crying. He cries for the people he knew, his once-friends in the GRuMPS, his old new life, his old love, and the future he is now free to pursue.  

The old wound in his spirit throbs with the tender feeling of something freshly-healed.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope y'all enjoyed! Comments/constructive criticism is always appreciated!


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